For two years 1999-2001, Vertical Horizon ruled the radio airwaves, and produced four Top 20 songs, including the chart-topping “Everything You Want,” which stayed on the Hot 100 chart for 10 months.

Vertical Horizon, with Matt Scannell in foreground

All the songs came from a single album, the double-platinum “Everything You Want,” which stayed on Billboard’s albums chart for even longer — 69 weeks.

Then the band largely disappeared. A shake-up at RCA Records, the band’s label; indecision about its musical path, and eventually personnel changes left the band languishing, and its follow-up albums did not meet expectations.

Now Vertical Horizon has returned with “Echoes From The Underground,” just its second album in a decade and one that broadens its signature alt-rock sound with new wave-influenced and synthesizer-based songs.

With only singer Matt Scannell from the band’s classic lineup, Vertical Horizon is back on the road promoting the new disc. It comes to Reverb in Reading on march 4 with fellow early-2000s bands Tonic and Dishwalla.

In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home to promote the show, Scannell spoke about the new disc, Vertical Horizon’s past and how much those early songs mean.

Here’s an edited transcript of the call:

LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC: We’ve talked a few times before. You guys played our Allentown Fair in Allentown, Pennsylvania …

MATT SCANNELL: “Oh, yeah. I totally remember that.”

Way back in the mid-2000s, then you played a club here called Crocodile Rock twice.

“Oh yeah, that’s right.”

And then you also played at a place called Sterling Hotel in Allentown.

Scannell at Allentown Fair in 2001

“Oh my gosh. I remember three out of the four.”

Wow. I think I interviewed you before every one of those shows.

“Oh, cool. [Laughs] So have I been nice or have I been kind of a dick?”

No, no no. You’ve been great. You’ve been great.

“OK, good. [Laughs]”

So you can be a dick to me this time.

[Laughs] “No way.”

All right, let’s jump into this. Tell me about your new album, “Echoes from the Underground.” What were you looking to do? How is it different? Tell me all about it.

“So I sort of felt like [the albums] ‘Everything You Want,’ ‘Go’ and ‘Burning the Days’ were in some ways like a trilogy and they sort of fit together really well. Stylistically they kind of reach for the same … aspire to the same peaks and they sort of, maybe, dynamically got soft and subtle in similar ways. An I just wanted to change that up. I wanted to reach and aspire and try to find new voices and new sounds and new inspiration. And to embrace it and hopefully to find a place for Vertical Horizon in that new context.

“And yet at the same time, I felt like we didn’t need to disown the heritage that the band has. We wanted to keep elements of the music that has come before, but also to try to go to new places. And I really feel like, as far as the journey goes, I feel like this record is the most varied and, for lack of a better word, sort of dynamic record that we’ve put together as of yet, and I’m really proud of that.”

Stylistically different? Sound different?

Echoes From the Underground

“I think yes and yes. I think the best example for the record is a song called ‘Lovestruck.’ I found myself listening to my old Joy Division records,my New Order records, my Depeche Mode records. And I had had come from mostly a rock place; Rush is my favorite band of all time. You know, Iron Maiden and even Metallica and Van Halen and all these more rock bands. But I also had these more sort of new wave and dance records and loved the songs and loved the sounds, even though they weren’t as guitar-dominated as my rock bands were. And I’ve never really taken the time to sort of explore that side of music within the context of this band.

“And so that’s sort of what we did on a couple of songs. A song called ‘Frost’ has a lot of those elements in it. But I think the most obvious one is ‘Lovestruck,’ and I really like … I worked really hard on the record; the goal is to like it. Very often you go, ‘Yeah, I like it, but … But I really feel proud of this one. I think this is a strong effort.”

OK, I’m going to go back in time and run through this chronology so that I get it all straight. OK, so after “Everything You Want” goes crazy – whatever, double platinum plus – and you guys spent whatever, two years, touring on it, the follow-up album ‘Go’ doesn’t come out for four years. Tell me what happened there.

“Yeah, that was a difficult time. The biggest change was – I think it was something like 80 percent of the people at RCA Records were let go. And Clive Davis came in with his whole new team, which had been, effectively, Arista Records, and Clive – Clive just didn’t like us. He probably didn’t like me, he didn’t like our music, didn’t think we were worth spending the time or the money on, and as a result we kind of languished.

“They kept pushing the record release date back and we tried to get out of the deal. They wouldn’t let us out of the deal. It just was too bad, ‘cause to experience such highs followed directly by lows, was bummer. I could have used a little bit more space between [Laughs]. But I guess life is a series of peaks and valleys, so I had a good peak and then I had a hell of a valley.

“And eventually they let us out of the deal, which … it wasn’t how I would have treated people. And so the record was effectively stillborn. But I believed in it. It didn’t get a chance. So I guess a couple of years later, or a year later, maybe, we re-released it on our own label to try to get it out there and basically give it the voice that we thought it deserved. And that was a tough process, but by the same token, I mean grass roots is what this band does. That’s how we started this thing.

“So the concept of getting down and dirty and trying to make it happen the old fashioned way, like that does not frighten me. And so we did it on our own for a while and had some success with it, but eventually it was just time to take a step back from that.

“I think I, at the same time, probably was struggling a little bit with the motivation and the direction and just sort of what would come next for the band. So I really started investing my time in collaborative songwriting for other artists and with other artists, writing some music getting involved in some film projects and kind of doing that, just kind of trying to test those waters and just see what else was out there.

“And a couple of years probably went by, don’t really know my dates that well, and then I started getting the desire and the old Vertical Horizon thing kept calling. And so we did [the album] ‘Burning the Days.’”

Let me stop you there. So in the meantime, Ed Toth leaves and goes to The Doobie Brothers, right?

The album 'Everything You Want'

“Yup. Ed Toth left after ‘Go.’

And then at some point [bassist] Sean [Hurley] left, as well?

“No, Sean really hasn’t left. Here’s the thing, and I’m so happy to say this. Sean is so stunningly talented that he basically just gets to have one of the best gigs in music today, which is the John Mayer gig. And when he’s not doing that, he’s working on sessions, playing on everybody’s records here in Los Angeles. He is a stunningly talented guy.

“And his opportunities are better served for him to not be going be going out and playing tours with us, with vertical. But he plays on the record – he played on the last one. In fact, we joke that [laughs] that his goal is to never have anyone else play bass on a vertical Horizon record. [Laughs] And I just love that about him. I just have nothing but the best things to say about Sean.”

I saw John Mayer, he played Allentown fair last summer, and I’m looking, and I sort of elbowed my wife and said, “That’s Sean Hurley from vertical Horizon playing bass.”

“Yeah, exactly. And it was something that he kind of made happen over a period of time. I’ve known John a bit over the years and I feel like Sean’s a good fit. There’s nothing he can’t play, he’s an easy-going guy, great to be around. It’s good. It’s really good.”

OK, so then you start working on “Burning the Days” and you write with Richard Marx.

“Um, yeah. We didn’t actually end up doing a song on ‘Burning the Days’ together, but after ‘Go’ came out -- through some of the highs but mostly lows of ‘Go,’ Richard and I became really good friends. He loved the record and wrote me some really great, supportive e-mails during the tougher times. And Richard and I became very good friends and decided ultimately that we should, we wanted to write together and see if that would work. And it wound up working very, very well.

“So we did some acoustic shows together and started doing these duo tours – not lots of touring, but, you know, a week here and there, and really enjoyed it. Had a great time. And it was only after we had done a bunch of these shows that we said, ‘We really should have a record.’ So we recorded a duo record together where we did half his songs and half my songs and we added a collaboration on there – a song called ‘Always on You Mind.’ And then we did a live record together that we recorded in, I believe, St. Charles, Ill., a beautiful theater there.

“And so yeah, that was part of the exploration and trying to just keep things feeling fresh, you know? And Richard and I have since written a bunch of songs together and he actually helped me a lot on ‘Echoes from the Underground.’ He co-wrote the first song with me – a song called ‘You Never Let Me Down.’ And then he sang background vocals on like four songs, which was great. Sorry, I skipped around in your timeline a little bit.”

That’s OK. And so “Burning the Days” comes out and [guitarist] Keith [Kane], his role is less than it was on previous albums?

“Yeah, I think that’s safe to say. Keith, I think, from a creative standpoint, was maybe just in a different place and had mentioned that he was thinking of doing some sort of solo record – which I would love to hear. His voice is just so amazingly unique and special. And I think to have him be the focus of something like that, I think it would be just great to hear.

“And yeah, I think after a while we just kind of both realized that maybe it was time to make a change. He’s got a family; touring was probably a little less of a priority for him. We’d had a great, long run together and really made a lot of great things happen and weathered a lot of pretty bitter storms. But you just kind of keep moving on in your life.”

Your relationship’s still good?

“Yeah, absolutely. No problems at all.”

After “Burning The Days” comes out – when do you decide to continue on as Vertical Horizon? Or did you never give it a thought?

“Yeah, I never gave it a thought. It was always – it was just not even a consideration. It’s just to me, it’s the band – keep the band going forward. And we’re fortunate that people want that, and people want this band to keep moving forward.

“So yeah, ‘Echoes From the Underground’ was probably a rethinking of the lines in the sand that had been drawn over years and years and years. We sort of said, ‘Why can’t we do something that’s more new wave-influenced? Something that’s more dance-y? Why can’t we have things that are pretty keyboard-based?

“And I felt like whenever I was asking myself ‘Why can’t we?’ I couldn’t really come up with a good answer [laughs]. So, hence, songs like ‘Lovestruck’ and ‘Frost’ and some others on there – ‘I Free You.’”

I wanted to mention that on “Burning The Days,” you had Neil Peart of Rush play drums on there.

“Yeah, yeah. Neil and I had become very good friends. I think we met somewhere around 2005 and just really hit it off. When I first met him, I was trying to think of a way to tell him how much his music had meant to me, and as I’m searching for words, he sort of reached out told me, ‘I’m a big fan of your work.’ And I thought, ‘OK, here we go. What a beautiful thing; we’re peers.’ And I don’t presume to equate my body of work with his, but I will say we both do the same thing and we can relate to each other in those same ways – we’re both band guys. And so we would up just really, really becoming close. And he’s just one of my absolute favorite people on the planet.

“At some point I guess you have to acknowledge – ‘We’re both musicians; OK, should we try to do something together?’ [Laughs] … Should we write a song? And that’s a big question, ‘cause sometimes you’re better off not doing that. But he was into it, I was into it and it was interesting ‘cause the day we were going to write, he walked in with a perfectly manicured, printed page on heavy stock of finished lyrics that were perfectly composed. You know, ‘These are the lyrics.’ And that’s what he does in Rush, you know? That’s not how I’ve worked as a collaborator. It’s always we get in on the ground floor and we build it together.

“But I loved it because it was such a pure expression from one of my favorite writers. I was able to bring another side of what I bring to the table, which is music and melody, and it was easy. I mean, that song, even now – literally, the chords I started playing when I saw the lyrics are the chords of the song. There was no experimentation – it was just instant and effortless. In fact, Neil said, ‘Is that something you’ve been working on?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s not. It’s just coming right now.’ So it was fun.”

“He played on three songs – ‘Even Now,’ ‘Save Me From Myself’ and ‘Welcome to the Bottom,’ and just nailed it. I mean, there’s a reason why he’s won every drummer poll award. There’s a reason he’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his bandmates. He is one of the seminal players of the instrument.”

I just wanted to ask what the shows are like these days. Obviously, Vertical Horizon is so identified with the songs from “Everything You Want.” You still play a good dose of those?

“Oh yeah, totally, totally. From my perspective, I learned a long, long time ago that if I didn’t like a song and if I didn’t think I could sing it about 15,000 times, that I shouldn’t put it on a record. So those songs I can 100 percent embrace, and we sort of go through six of them. Some of them come and go, but we play ‘Everything You Want,’ we play ‘You’re a God,’ ‘Best I Ever Had.’ We play those every single night. And I love it. We have a great time with them.”

How often do you play “Send It Up”?

“Every night. I love playing that song.”

I told my wife, when I interview him, I’m going to say, ‘You realize that I’m writing this story. You’d better play ‘Send It Up’ when you come here.’

[Laughs] “I promise you we will play ‘Send It Up.’ I love that you love that one. I love that one. It’s a really fun song to play live. It’s been in the set since the ‘Everything You Want’ record came out. And I imagine it will always stay. I love playing that song.”

Anything else I should ask?

“I guess I would mention that our fans funded the making of ‘Echoes From the Underground.’ Which was a really great experience for us; we used a company called Pledge Music to help us interface with the fans and make that happen. It had always been a really removed experience – cacooned environment from the perspective of the band . Almost like, ‘Don’t let anyone know what you’re doing.’ This felt very different and much more vibrant.”

Great. Thanks again for your time. And for again not being a dick to me.

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.